Sidney Seminar - The Rule of Law in Canada: Theories and Issues

The Rule of Law in Canada: Theories and Issues

Speaker: Professor Hoi Kong (The University of British Columbia)

Chair: Prof Jeff King (UCL Laws)

About the talk

In this presentation, Professor Kong will show how Canadian theorists have contributed to longstanding debates about the rule of law. Professor Kong will then apply some of those theorists’ insights to pressing issues of democratic governance in Canada. In particular, Professor Kong will assess whether invocations of the emergency power and the notwithstanding clause can be made consistent with the demands of the rule of law.

This seminar is part of the Sidney Seminar Series. 

About the Speaker

Hoi Kong is a full professor and the inaugural holder of The Rt. Hon. Beverley McLachlin, P.C., UBC Professorship in Constitutional Law, which he assumed in 2018. He is Canada’s appointment, as an individual member, to the European Commission for Democracy through Law (the Venice Commission), Fellow of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation (2024-2027), and Director of UBC’s Centre for Asian Legal Studies.  He also co-directs with Professor Ron Levy (the Australian National University) the Project on Deliberative Governance and Law. Prior to joining the Allard School of Law, Professor Kong was an Assistant and then Associate Professor at McGill University’s Faculty of Law, where he served a term as Associate Dean (Academic). He primarily researches and teaches in the areas of constitutional, administrative, municipal and comparative law, and constitutional and public law theory.

About the Chair 

Jeff King joined the UCL Laws in 2011 and has been Professor of Law since 2016. He is the Deputy Director of the Global Centre for Democratic Constitutionalism. He sits on the Editorial Committees of the journals Public Law and the Federal Law Review, and on the General Council of the International Society of Public Law (ICON Society), and is a member of the Study of Parliament Group.  He was previously the Co-Editor of Current Legal Problems and the Co-Editor of the UK Constitutional Law Blog. Between 2019-2021, he was a Legal Adviser to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution, and from 2022-24 he served on secondment as the Director of Research at the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law.  He remains a Senior Fellow at the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law, where he continues to lead the project the Rule of Law Restoration Project. 

About the GCDC 

The Global Centre for Democratic Constitutionalism, based at the UCL Faculty of Laws, seeks to advance scholarly knowledge of democratic governance, the rule of law, and constitutionalism. As a research community with a global perspective, our key focus is understanding how to achieve constitutional resilience in electorally competitive political systems. We are currently supported by the Leverhulme Trust.  Book your Place

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